"Oi, Remus," Tonks called as she stumbled up to the table with her morning cup of coffee. "You on duty today?"
Remus shook his head. "Kingsley volunteered to take my shift for me—he wanted to get out of the Auror office for the day."
"Great," Tonks said brightly, sliding into the seat beside him. "Would you mind coming with me to Diagon Alley, then? I've got some shopping to do, and I could use the company."
Remus tilted his head at her. "Shopping?"
"Important shopping," Tonks clarified. "Come on; it'd be nice to get out and do something normal for a change, wouldn't it?"
Remus thought that it very much would be nice, especially if he was going to be accompanying Tonks. The young witch was easily his favorite new addition to the Order—she was funny and clever and light, and Remus, who often thought himself much older than his thirty-five years, felt like a young man again whenever he was with her. Tonks, for her part, seemed to enjoy his company as well; she'd been a bit of a troublemaker in her own Hogwarts days, apparently, and she loved Remus's stories about the Marauders' pranks and stunts. Knowing that she wanted him to come to Diagon Alley with her made Remus feel unusually happy.
He glanced down the table at Sirius, who was deep in conversation with Harry and Ron over a copy of the morning's Prophet. Normally Sirius hated whenever Remus left the house when he didn't absolutely have to, but today he seemed more than preoccupied by his godson, who was heading back to Hogwarts at the end of the week after being let off by the Ministry for defending himself against a Dementor. Though he hadn't said anything to him, Remus knew that Sirius had secretly been disappointed to hear that Harry would be allowed back at school and would not be staying with him—but now that the time of Harry's departure was drawing near, he seemed determined to make the most of his last few days in Grimmauld Place. He would not miss Remus if he went out shopping for a bit.
"I'd love to come," he told Tonks, who grinned. "Give me a minute to get dressed."
Remus finished up his breakfast and went to change, then Apparated out of the house with Tonks and onto the bright, bustling streets of Diagon Alley. It was a warm, cloudless morning; Remus savored the feeling of the sun on his face after so long in the dark halls of the Order's headquarters. He hadn't been to Diagon Alley in years, but everything was largely as he remembered: Flourish and Blotts, Ollivanders, Gringotts, dozens of street vendors…he did notice that his old favorite sweets shop had been replaced with a secondhand broom store, a fact which disappointed him more than was reasonable.
"Ooh, Florean Fortescue's," Tonks said, casting a longing glance at the ice cream parlor. "What do you say we stop there first?"
"I think that sounds like a great idea," Remus replied. "Let's see if Florean's gotten rid of the butterbeer flavor yet."
"Oh, come on, the butterbeer's the best!"
"Sirius would agree with you," Remus murmured. "I just think it's a bit odd for ice cream to taste like a pub drink."
Tonks shoved him good-naturedly and led the way to the parlor, where Remus order a pistachio cone for himself and a pint of butterbeer to bring home for Sirius. He and Tonks went to sit at one of the covered wooden tables outside the shop to eat their ice cream, continuing their argument on flavors and debating whether Tonks looked better with pink or blue hair.
"So," Remus said once he'd finished wiping away his pistachio-colored mustache, "what exactly are we shopping for here?"
Tonks pulled a piece of note paper covered in scribbles from her pocket. "Potion ingredients," she explained.
"For what potion?"
"You'll just have to find out, won't you?" With a teasing wiggle of her eyebrows, Tonks leapt to her feet and held out a hand to help Remus to his. Smiling slightly, Remus followed her down to street to Diagon Alley's apothecary.
The apothecary was as foul-smelling as always, stuffed with jars and vials that were filled with every substance one could imagine. Muttering to herself, Tonks read through her list and began pulling ingredients from the shelves—viper fangs, powdered willow root, half a unicorn horn—and slipping them delicately into her satchel. The ingredients were vaguely familiar to Remus, but he was much too poor a potioneer to put his finger on why.
"How are you paying for all of this?" Remus wondered as Tonks picked up a pair of dragon scales. "I didn't know the Order had this sort of budget for potion-making."
"They don't," Tonks said simply.
"Then what—"
"Have you seen any aconite? I'm sure they keep some here…ah! All the way on the top shelf, I might have to grow a few inches…."
"Aconite?" Remus narrowed his eyes as Tonks reached to grab a few sprigs of the purple flowers. He'd suddenly realized why the ingredients had sounded so familiar to him. "Tonks, are you—"
"Arghh!" Tonks had tripped over a jar of frog's eyes left out beneath the aconite; quickly Remus leapt forward to catch her in his arms.
"Tonks…." Glancing around, Remus led her over to a darkened corner of the apothecary and leaned in to speak quietly. "Are you trying to brew Wolfsbane Potion?"
Tonks nodded, her hazel-green eyes sparkling. "Me and Sirius," she said. "We were talking the other day, and we want to try to do it. I've been looking around for a good instruction book—I haven't found anything yet, but I'll ask Snape for one if I really have to. Sirius reckons he can figure it out how to brew it, and he's given me all the money I need to buy everything." She pulled a small bag of Galleons from her satchel and showed it to Remus.
Remus swallowed. "You and Sirius are doing all that for me?"
"Well, why not?" Tonks demanded. "It would make your transformations so much better—Sirius said you'd told him about how much you missed Snape's potions—and Sirius needs something to do all day while he's stuck in the house, doesn't he? As for me…I dunno, I guess there's something about you that makes me want to do nice things."
Remus didn't know what to say to that. "There…there is?"
Tonks smirked. "Yeah. There is." She and Remus held each other's gazes for a long moment; then Tonks winked and glanced down at her Wolfsbane-ingredient-laden satchel. "I'm going to go ring these up now," she said, and she slid herself gently out of Remus's grasp.
"Right." Remus nodded silently as she walked off, his eyes trained firmly on her back and his insides melting to mush as fast as a mound of Honeydukes chocolates left out in the sun.
